


A Song Of Shadows

by happycookiie



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Bethyl Smut Week, Bethyl Smut Week August 2016, Carpathian, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Family, Lifemates - Freeform, NSFW, Romance, Smut, Soulmates, Supernatural Elements, Vampire Sex, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 19:04:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7857445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happycookiie/pseuds/happycookiie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Colourless Beth Greene has experienced life without brilliance for near centuries now, but the arrival of one particular man at one of her nightly concerts changes everything. There's a fine line between desire and destiny, and it takes feasting on one's lifemate's blood to understand that blinding lust. (<i>Carpathian AU</i>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Song Of Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my contribution to smut week, inspired by _[Christine Feehan](http://christinefeehan.com/)_ 's **[The Dark Series](http://www.christinefeehan.com/dark_series/index.php)**.
> 
> The novel franchise explores an ancient race of creatures known as _Carpathians_ , creatures that share strong similarities to vampires in both behaviour and appearance. _Lifemate_ is the term given to a pair of Carpathians that are linked by a special bond (essentially soulmates). If a Carpathian fails to find their foretold lifemate, they will either transform into a monstrous Vampire or they can choose to accept death by walking out into the sun.

It had been a long time since Beth Greene had seen in colour.

Near centuries, actually.

She belonged to an ancient race called the _Carpathians_. Creatures those in modern times would probably refer to as _Vampires_ , but in reality, that comparison was quite sickening to the imperial race. Carpathians were of fine and noble blood, spanning back generations, whereas Vampires were the blood-sucking beasts a Carpathian became if they lost their rationality or didn't find their _lifemate_.

Lifemate was the term given for a pair bound by the fates, and every Carpathian spent the longest lengths of their lives searching for that partner. The race was a dying one, and without children, it would soon be extinct. Females were scarce as it was, and Beth had only ever known herself, her sister Maggie, Michonne, and Carol, in all her years of existence. Of course humans could be turned if the intent was powerful enough, but for that to occur the human had to be lifemate to the Carpathian that wished to change them. But even that had become an extreme rarity.

Without females, the Carpathian blood was running dry, and without the lifemate to quell that empty ache in one's soul, one could either fall to the status of hideous Vampire… or face the sun and die.

Beth belonged to a small group of Carpathians that hadn't succumb to either fate ( _yet_ ), but even they were becoming rare. The group included: herself, the females previously mentioned, their leader Rick, Shane, and Glenn. Rick had had a mate and a son once, but they'd been killed long ago. _Lori_ and _Carl_. Lori hadn't been Rick's lifemate, that was Michonne, but they hadn't found her until later. But regardless of Lori not being Rick's lifemate, he'd still loved her deeply.

The fates must not have favoured that.

Beth had grown alongside Carl, and Lori had been like a mother to her, so losing them had been horrendously hard. But of course there'd already been her real Mama, her brother Shawn, and then her Daddy. And she'd gotten through _that_. So she carried on, because that was what their group did. They carried on.

One thing that hadn't changed through the centuries though was her love for music.

She loved to sing, write songs, play instruments… She loved it all. She also loved performing, a crowd clapping and screaming, but that changed when she lost the vivid colour in her vision.

Suddenly, everything was dull, and a grey cloud plagued her eyelids permanently, and she knew it was because she hadn't found her lifemate. Rick and Michonne were lifemates, as were Maggie and Glenn. Shane and Carol hadn't found theirs yet either, and Beth worried how much time they both had left. They were so much older than her, and it had been _more_ than centuries since _they'd_ seen in colour. They hadn't forgotten what it was like though, because how could you? Seeing the way the moonlight sparkled off dew-painted green leaves, glittering in the evening light. Remembering a beach bathed in the soft twilight glow. Blinking carnival lights. The blue of a crystal lake. Beth remembered it all, and it was the memories that kept her singing.

But it was all so grey.

It was the night before a concert she was scheduled to sing at, and she was trying to write a new song to spark some creativity into herself. The song was supposed to be about magic and wonder, but all she could write was grey. Grey. Grey. _Grey_. Everything was grey.

She eventually screwed up the paper and tossed it across the room.

Maggie sometimes described the colour of the night sky to her, them being unable to go out in the day for palpable reasons. They'd sit in open passing fields on breaks between their tour stops, and Maggie would let every single stunning midnight colour roll off her tongue. She was lucky, Beth thought bitterly. Having a lifemate made it that she could still see colours, and she envied that. Maggie was older, stronger, and far more beautiful. Her eyes were cat-like and green, or they had been before Beth had lost the ability to see that, and her features were lovely and striking. Beth on the other hand was small and frail, lacking the plush curves her sister had, and eyes a pale washed out grey regardless of if she could see colour or not. Her hair was the single thing she was proud of about her appearance, a warm dazzling gold, but she could no longer see even that whenever she looked in a mirror. It was pathetic. And gloomy like every single pallid brushstroke of colourless paint on Carol's colourless canvases.

But on the night of that lone concert… Something changed.

She felt a pulse deep within her chest, but willed herself to ignore it, until something happened that she just _couldn't_ ignore.

A man bumped into her on the way up to the stage. _Carpathian_ , she sensed instantly. He was tall and towered over her, practically built with iron muscle and hair like shadow, and eyes the blue colour of a ferocious storm at sea.

 _Blue_.

Not grey.

She gasped as he regarded her curiously, until his eyes widened and she realised he seemed as surprised as she. He blinked those vivid _blue_ eyes rapidly and looked like he wanted to say something, but she was ushered away quickly by Michonne and led up towards the stage. She tried to protest but it was too late, the man had disappeared into the crowd, hiding amongst the array of pinks and purples.

 _Oh god_.

The transition was gradual at first, but suddenly high definition _colour_ flooded back to her vision and shook her on her spot at the center of the stage.

There was colour _everywhere_ , painting the crowd and stage like Christmas lights, and it was only a crappy gig stage, but everything was incredibly vivid and powerful that Beth almost _fell_. She brought her hands up to her mouth and trembled, alarming the crowd and causing them to whisper in quiet hisses, until she suddenly erupted into a fit of hysterical laughter. Now, Beth Greene was known for being a little odd when it came to musical performers. Partially because she only performed under the cover of night and seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth when the sun rose. But she was seen as rather quirky in general, so this sudden outburst could be viewed as actually rather normal for a musical genius like her.

She didn't let it ruin her vibe either, because she was suddenly so filled with the urge to sing, _really_ sing, so she picked up the microphone and screamed into it. Sung about the terror, the wonder, the sickness, and the _beauty_ of everything. She looked at the colour blazing all around her and poured out her soul into the music, and the crowd went _mad_. Maggie, Michonne and Carol were a little taken aback by the intensity of her performance, but rolled with it and played their respective instruments in tune with her. Beth scanned the crowd for the man from before as she was singing, but he was nowhere in sight. He or his furious marine eyes. She felt oddly disheartened his lack of appearance, but she couldn't shake the sensation that he was out there, staring at her fixedly. She used it to fuel the music pouring from her lips and filled the room like starlight. She sung and sung until her throat felt raw, and eventually the show was over.

Coated in sweat and panting heavily, Beth stepped down from the stage and wiped her dripping brow, _golden blonde_ locks curling around her wrist and dazzling in the moon's gentle glow. She breathed a ridiculous laugh and tipped her head back to stare at the night sky, so used to the dark grey and black gradient. _Now_ though, everything was blue, purple, and the stars looked _red_. Clusters of vivid exquisiteness stretched out high above and she almost fell backwards clumsily, but Glenn came and caught her before she stumbled.

"What's the matter with _you_?" he asked, alarmed by her out of character behaviour, "What _happened_ up there?"

She just giggled wildly, and when Maggie came down the stage after her she threw her arms around her and squeezed.

"Beth?" she asked, blinking in bewilderment, "What's…?"

"I gotta go," she said whilst pulling away, grin face-splitting.

Maggie blinked harder.

"Go? _Where_?"

"Feedin'. I'm thirsty, see if I can catch a coyote or something. I'll be back before the sun comes up. Just wait for me in the caves in those mountains over there."

"Why can't we just come with—"

Beth was already far away before Maggie could finish her sentence, the Carpathian speed coming especially useful, and she breathed giddily. Darting into the trees surrounding the stage area, Beth slowed her pace and walked leisurely, admiring the vast green of the leaves and warm brown of the soil beneath her feet.

She lifted a hand to her throat, not having lied about being thirsty, and listened for any movement in the forest. She heard rustling several feet away and crept quietly towards the noises, the predator in her emerging for the hunt. It was a deer, much to her delight, and she pounced from behind and pinned it to the ground with ease, _her_ strength far surpassing the lean-legged animal. She opened her mouth and hissed, sinking her teeth into its pulsing neck and feeding on the scorching blood pounding through its veins. She drank greedily and drained the beast dry, wiping her crimson-painted mouth once finished and relishing at the sight of all the flowing red. Red. _Red_. _So_ much _red_. The scarlet rivers leaking onto the forest floor only excited her more, and the restlessness building in her seemed to triple at the arrival of _another_ creature…

"Thought ya were like me. Guess I was right."

She turned and saw the _man_ standing in the woods before her, several metres away. He stood beneath a shady tree and was bathed in shadows, but that didn't stop the colour of his eyes from blazing at her like glowing beacons.

Her lips curved into a smile.

Her heart was beating faster than it had ever, and the exhilaration she'd felt before only grew more intense as she remained under his sweltering gaze. The colours felt more thrilling and extreme around him somehow, and her senses made her want to crawl towards him and sink her teeth into him to taste his heart beating through his flesh.

"Who are you?" she asked instead.

"Name's Daryl. Who're you?"

 _Daryl_.

Her pulse throbbed even more with excitement.

"Beth. I'm Beth."

The overwhelming urge to rush over to him was becoming almost too strong, and she didn't understand what was happening to her until he started to step forward. The moonlight hit him and illuminated his features, strong cheekbones and wiry stubble splattered across his chin and jaw. His hair shone like a curtain of black silk and the sleeveless vest he had on revealed the rippling muscles at his shoulders and forearms. His eyes were dark and hungry, incredibly dangerous looking, but that only electrified Beth more.

She swallowed, a curious heat pooling at the pit of her stomach as he stalked ever closer, and tilted her head up to meet his gaze. Seeing in colour again after so many years made it all so much more empowering, and the dirt dusting his tanned honey skin looked almost bronze. His shirt was slightly open, she noticed when he stopped just a few centimetres from touching her, and silver wires of hair poked out and dazzled like magic and starlight. She blinked hazily, skin feeling aflame, and steadily reached out to plant a hand on his robust breast. Liquid heat seeped from where her hand made the contact, and she gasped violently as he reached out suddenly and grabbed her by the hip.

His hand was strong and hot over the fabric of her waist, and her heart started to beat like thunder as it slowly creeped up under her shirt and caressed the fiery skin beneath.

"I—" she hissed suddenly, thinking she should say something, but whatever she was going to say was cut short by the all-devouring inferno in his cloudy eyes.

He stroked her hip with his thumb and her breath hitched, and he lowered his head to rest against the slender column of her neck.

"Do you understand what's happenin'?" he breathed throatily against her neck, and she resisted the urge to sigh eagerly as his pointed fangs brushed the pulse point there.

Her hand trembled against his chest and her legs felt like jelly, but somehow she remained standing and opened her mouth to answer his question. She knew the answer, of course she did—it was embarrassingly obvious—but somehow she couldn't bring herself to say it. She felt giddy and lightheaded, but at the same time she felt _humiliated_. By her eagerness and breathy pants as his mouth moved against her neck seductively. She was no virgin. Who could be after hundreds of years on the earth? But her responses to this man were unnatural. Her heartbeat, burning skin, pulsing loins… It was all… He was so…

_I can hear your thoughts._

She _huff!_ ed in panic.

His mouth hadn't spoken, but she'd heard his words deep in the corners of her mind. Lifemates could communicate telepathically, that was something she'd come to know, but experiencing it first-hand was another experience entirely. It was agonizingly intimate, closer than anything she'd ever felt, and _thrilling_. Her heart pounded like Michonne's drum set and she tried to absorb the sensations flooding through her.

He snickered.

_It's somethin' else, huh?_

She tried to frown but found she couldn't.

 _Stop readin' my mind_ , she said back, and he simply chuckled more against her neck.

He lifted his head and looked deep into her eyes, his own shining with the same anticipation and starvation she knew he could see in hers. His other hand moved to tilt her chin up, and she could feel his burning breath blowing across gently her face. The other hand remained on the flesh of her waist and she leaned more into him, pressing herself into him fully, and gasped against his lips which were mere millimetres away. She could feel the heat of his flushed pink mouth, and her tongue quickly darted out to moisten her own lips. The sizzling at the back of her throat was immensely powerful, even though she'd literally just fed, and she could feel her fangs swelling as his warm breath poured out across her face.

She wondered what he'd taste like, but then flushed when she realised he would've been able to hear that thought.

" _Beth_ ," he whispered, her name rolling off his tongue like sweet honey, " _Beth_ …"

The hand on his chest snaked up to curl around his throat, and she felt his pulse thrumming away against her palm.

"Your singin'… It was beautiful. It was so beautiful, girl. Made me wanna… _You're_ —"

She swallowed the end of that sentence when she pressed her mouth against his and kissed him hard. He responded instantly, lips shifting like in a dance, and his tongue lapped against her bottom lip wildly. She still held him by the neck and squeezed harshly, making him gasp for breath momentarily, and she used the opportunity to shove her own tongue into his mouth and swirl it around in there. He gripped her tighter by the hip and pulled her forward into him, and she felt the almost _unbearable_ heat of him pressing against her stomach through layers of clothing. She grinned against his mouth and angled her head to deepen the kiss, hand around his neck winding to clasp the base of his skull, and he let out a heady groan against her mouth when she ghosted her sharp canines over his lip. Something burst in her ribcage and he walked her back against a tree, sharp pieces of wood poking into the back of her thighs and tearing her netted tights, and she gasped out in longing.

This was insane, the rational part of her mind suddenly emerged. This was absolutely _insane_.

She had run off into the woods with a different kind of hunger to what she'd told Maggie and was heavily making out with a stranger she knew _nothing_ about besides his name.

 _But ya do know me_ , his low voice whispered in her mind. _Just like I can read your thoughts, you can read mine. All I had to do was look an' I know everythin' about you, Beth Greene. I know you're gentle, kind, little bit quiet, an' you love poetry. You can tap into my mind and know everythin' about me too. This ain't just some random rendezvous, surely ya know that? … Surely ya do._

She shivered with want. She was _wanting_. Well, she was communicating with him in the most intimate way possible for their kind, as well as excessively sucking at his tongue.

_…_ _Your name is Daryl Dixon. You travel with your brother, Merle. You ride a motorcycle, and… you like poetry too._

That surprised her.

He didn't strike her as the type to like things like that, but she'd always known to pre-judge people based on appearance was wrong. Lori always used to tell her not to judge a book by a cover, and it turned out she'd been right.

"You're beautiful," he said out loud, nipping her lip with his sharp teeth, and she moaned loudly that time.

"I want," she whispered, "…I…"

"Go on. What?"

" _I_ …"

His eyes were dark like graphite, pupils filling his irises like eclipsing black suns, and the heat pooled even more intensely in her stomach.

Instead of vocalising her wants, she trusted he could see it in her thoughts, and apparently he did because he pressed her harder against the tree and went back to frantically kissing her. It happened in a flash and suddenly she was on the ground, his towering form pinning her like she'd pinned the deer, and that thought of being his prey excited her even more. The humiliation was still there, Beth being a proud and independent creature, but here it was acting as another factor of arousal. She'd never gotten turned on by public embarrassment before, and this wasn't even that bad, but still…

It was _extraordinary_.

She lifted a leg and hooked it around him, pulling him down and pressing him against her raging core, and he gasped at the sudden contact. The grin never left her face as she stared up at him from her bed of leaves, golden silk hair fanned out all around her like a halo. _Ironic_. Her eyes were wide with delight and their reflection stared back at her from his twin mirrors. He laced his fingers through hers and lifted her hands up above her head, holding her down like something he was about to feed on, until she realised that might be exactly what he was planning.

Carpathians could feed on each other, much like they could humans and animals. Familial blood-sharing was the most strengthening, but blood-sharing between lifemates was another matter _entirely_.

He lowered his head to the exposed column of her throat, hands pinned above her head and legs crushed with his powerful weight. He breathed in the scent of her pumping blood and grazed his teeth across the throbbing pulse point, and it was then she realised she was completely powerless to him.

He could snap her neck in two with his jaws and she wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him. He could kill her easily, and she'd allowed him to get her in this position.

_Are you afraid?_

A shiver rolled through her unintentionally, and he laughed quietly against her throat.

"Ya should be," he said aloud, "Like you're thinkin', I could kill you easy. Especially like this. It ain't exactly stupid to be afraid, so are you?"

She swallowed and met his gaze defiantly.

"…You should know. Can't you read my thoughts?"

His brow quirked and his lips curved into a smile.

She wasn't afraid, she knew that and so did he. It was a vulnerable position he'd put her in, and with anyone else she'd likely be dead right away, but this moment was different. This burning second… It was something else.

Carpathians didn't kill their lifemates. At least not intentionally.

He chuckled again and suckled at her neck, nuzzling the flesh covering her main artery, then lowered his head down to the lower part of her throat. His lips moved across her flesh for a while before he reached a certain spot, then he bit down sharply with his fangs.

She gasped in pure rapture.

He feasted on the lifeblood inside her and the feeling of being drained so intimately was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. She could feel his teeth moving, buried deep in her flesh, and the sensation of her blood flowing up onto his tongue made even more heat flood to her belly, and the dampness between her thighs was becoming too difficult to ignore. He pulled his mouth away from her throat finally and lapped at the wound with his tongue, sealing it with healing saliva then kissing back up to her mouth. He released her hands and let her move them down to cup the sides of his face, and she rolled her hips against his to create some delicious friction.

One of his hands palmed down her front and tugged open the folds of her flowy shirt, exposing her burning flesh to the cool night air. He started to move away from her mouth with his kisses and trailed them down her throat and to her crisp naked collarbones. His tongue darted out to lap at the space between them, but then he travelled further downwards until he reached one of her pebbled nipples.

She breathed rapidly as he closed his mouth around it and drunk harshly, making her shove a hand into his hair to push him closer. Shifting his mouth, he travelled further down to the side of her breast, then sunk his teeth into her again.

The sensation was _incredible_.

Too incredible to describe.

He sucked the deep red from her breast and she moaned, uncaring of who or what might hear. The silver hue of the moonlight shone down where they lay and she opened her eyes to take in the luminous light. She honestly felt like she was going to explode, but if that was the consequence, she would accept it. A feeling like this was worth the end result. He drank from her breast a while longer and sealed the wound shut like he had the other, then made his way down to her stomach.

She giggled and he glanced up through dark hanging bangs.

 _Keep going, keep going_ , she willed with her mind, and he just smirked wider.

Kissing further and further down, he reached the tiny hot pants and tore them down her legs then threw them aside. Her tights were tattered from the tree branches and already falling apart, so he shredded them and peeled them off, leaving her bare and squirming beneath him. She yanked at his leather vest and pulled it off, and eventually his shirt was ripped open too, revealing the chiselled muscle and chest hair beneath. She felt dizzy. Miraculously dizzy, the colours and sensations swirling around her, but all she could do was lift her head and plant hard kisses across his collar.

Her lips moved up to his iron throat, and he held her by the back of her head up to his pulse point, and she pressed her teeth to his flesh and bit down hard like he had with her.

If being drunk _from_ was one thing, _doing_ the drinking was a completely different experience, and Beth almost choked on his blood as the warm rich flavour ran down her throat like fire. The taste of him burned and suddenly he was freeing himself from his jeans and rubbing against her, stone-hard and desperate. Her feeding on him brought out the animal tucked away below the surface, and she wound her legs around him tighter to keep him clamped over her.

"Fuck, fuck, _fuck_ ," she could hear him whispering in her hair, and she swallowed a few more drops of blood from his neck and then stopped, lapping the wound closed with her healing spit.

She stared at him lazily and smiled, lips painted with crimson and fangs glinting in the dimness.

He smirked and kissed her again, cock thrusting against her thigh as he did. The heat in her stomach felt ablaze and she lowered her hand down between their bodies to cup his balls and give them a tight squeeze. He grunted in response and she worked her way up to his shaft, stroking roughly and pulling back his foreskin to reveal his pulsing head. His thoughts were racing with euphoria and colour just like her, and she laughed breathily as he sucked on her mouth angrily, like he hated what she was doing to him, but his thoughts told her all she needed to know about how she was making him feel.

"Do it," she whispered, voice hardly sounding like her own, " _Please_. I want— _oh_ please,"

He sniggered and planted one more wet kiss to her mouth, before returning to her neck and suckling on her pulse point. She thought he might bite down and drink from her again, but suddenly he pushed his cock up into her and she shrieked in sheer glee and desire. His thrusts were wild and aggressive, slamming against her whilst her inner walls squeezed him wonderfully, and their breathy moans mingled together and soared up together into the night skies. The feeling of his cock, so hard and filling her up, was more overwhelming than anything she'd encountered before, and the sensations were so grand that it almost felt like they were—

_We were made for each other. You and I are carved out of the same magic. Your heart and my heart beats the same, your soul sings to mine, an' your cunt screams for me and only me._

She moaned loudly at the latter part of the sentence and held onto him tightly, meeting his thrusts with her fast bucking hips. He pushed in and out powerfully until soon she was coming, loud and vivid, and it felt like a wave of colour was erupting from deep inside her.

Her orgasm rolled through her and he rode out the aftershocks, rapidly reaching his own, and she sliced her canines across his shoulder in frenzy.

 _I want I want I want_. She wanted so fiercely. Like nothing she'd ever known. She wasn't even sure what it was she _wanted_ anymore, but she knew it was him and him alone that could give it her.

"That's right," he panted, "That's right, girl. Only I can give you what ya want. Only me…!"

" _Daryl—_!"

She came again and he joined her, cock twitching violently still in the confines of her cunt, and she bit down on his shoulder to stifle her cries.

His musky ruby blood flowed down from where she'd bitten, and she thought of a song as they were coming together. A song of darkness and light. Of magic and shadows. A song she wanted to write, and _could_. She could write it now, because everything was in colour again, and everything sparkled with a godly radiance that set her body alight. She felt like a harp, strings tight and vibrating from use, and the sounds tearing from her mouth sounded like sweet musical tunes that filled the forest with fantastical joy.

They came together twice more on the forest turf before they collapsed in the leaves and breathed heavily, chests rising and falling whilst coated in a sheen of passionate sweat.

Beth stared at the abundance of stars up above and wondered what was going to happen next. Because this was her _lifemate_. What they'd done was far from small or a passing event. He was her saviour; her colour. Things were going to change, whether she liked it or not, and now… she _was_ afraid.

"Don't be afraid, _Beth_ ," he said quietly, aromatic emphasis on her name every time he said it. "Changes happen. Ain't nothin' out of the ordinary. Happens every day, sometimes without ya even noticin' it… You don't have to be afraid."

"You're right," she agreed, "Changes do happen, but they shouldn't change who you are. And I think this is going to do _exactly_ that."

"Look at me, lifemate."

She tilted her head and stared into his stormy ocean eyes, and felt her heart swell unexpectedly.

"You can be afraid," he said, "But let me be there to help when you're afraid. You saved me from a long time of shit, brought me _colour_ , an' every time I look into your mind I wanna be near you all the time even more. I ain't that good with words, but what I'm tryin' to say is…"

His voice cracked and he faltered.

_Lifemates are supposed to love each other._

The thought was out before she could control it, and she knew he heard it because of the look that fell on his face afterward. But she wasn't a fool, and he wasn't either. They _didn't_ love one another, they barely even _knew_ one another, despite what he said about looking into her mind, but the intensity of what was happening was frightening her. He didn't love her, and she didn't know if she was even capable of loving someone after all the years of seeing grey and running.

She didn't even know where to start, and for a moment she worried that she might _cry_ , until he reached out and clasped her hand abruptly.

His eyes shone, and he let his thoughts go crazy where his words were lacking.

_Ya say we don't love each other, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think we could learn to. We could. We're one an' the same after all. So what's the harm in trying? I've seen a lotta you in your head already, an' so far I like everythin' I see._

Her eyes welled up with tears and she blinked them away, trying to suppress the empowering emotions flaring inside.

 _Is this what it's like?_ she wondered. _For Maggie? For Rick?_

_Does it feel like you're on fire?_

Daryl snorted, unexpectedly.

"Does feel that way, don't it?" he said jokingly, and the way his dark eyes glimmered made her stomach coil in more want.

She reached over and pressed her thumb over his lips, tracing the soft but strong plumpness, and he smiled. She thought about her Daddy and Mama then, a thought she knew he'd be able to detect, but she didn't mind. The prospect of a lifemate had always scared her to some degree, and now that it was happening, she felt like everything was spinning out of control. No, forget spinning, everything had _already_ unwound and now lay in a tangled mess. Beth wasn't used to not being in control. She was always in control, always in charge, always…

He closed his lips around her thumb and sucked it gently. "Your thoughts are loud," he murmured, and she giggled despite herself.

The marks from her teeth were healing but still visible on his neck and shoulder, and she smiled at the sight. It was sort of possessive, but she liked the way his skin looked after being assaulted by her fangs, and she wondered if that was what it was like to have a lifemate.

Unpredictable… But spectacularly _brilliant_.

"Thank you," she whispered, and his thoughts showed he was confused by her words.

"Thank you for bumpin' into me," she clarified, "If you hadn't, I… I wouldn't know…"

_Everything would still be grey._

He smiled and pulled her head against his naked chest, and rested his chin on the white blonde crown of her head. She thought she heard him mumble a _You're welcome_ , but soon her eyelids were drooping and she was starting to feel drowsy. She didn't normally sleep at night, fear of the sun rising whilst she was still asleep preventing her from doing so, but she was so exhausted from the collision of their bodies that she found herself struggling.

 _Sleep, Beth,_ his treacle voice hummed _. I'll wake you before the sun comes up._

_Sleep._

So she closed her eyes and even the shadows behind her eyelids were a faded assortment of colour, and the warmth from Daryl radiated into her like a heater, and she fell asleep to thoughts of lust, desire, destiny, and finally... ensuing _love_.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hello on **[tumblr](https://happycookiie.tumblr.com/)**.


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